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Flowers

paperwhite bloom (Narcissus papyraceus)

Force bulbs indoors for holiday decor

Bring the garden inside this winter with fun activities and experiments! ‘Forcing’ paperwhite bulbs is a family-friendly activity to add a touch of nature to your home this winter. The technique nurtures a winter bloom indoors by providing bulbs with favorable growing conditions similar to spring...
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bulbs, pixabay

Plant spring bulbs now

As many perennial plants are getting ready to go dormant for the winter, it is time to start thinking about next spring’s floral display and plant spring-flowering bulbs. The best time to plant spring bulbs is late September through October to allow sufficient time for a good root system to develop...
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joseph's coat

Overwintering your favorite garden plants

This is the time of the year to make tough decisions about what will take up residence in the house and what will succumb to the frost. Though frost will inevitably kill off most of the tender plants that I have cared for all summer, some of these plants can be saved for next year. ...
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Take your butterfly garden to the next level

Are you ready to take your butterfly gardening to the next level and allow some of your beautiful plants to be eaten by caterpillars? Choose the right plants, give them some care, and voila — caterpillars. The most grown caterpillar food in our gardens are milkweeds for monarchs and parsley...
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silvery checkerspot by kathy dumler

Advanced butterfly gardening

Are you ready to take your butterfly gardening status to the next level and allow some of your beautiful plants to be eaten by caterpillars? Choosing the right plants, some care and voila caterpillars. I am not only altering the habitat of my backyard for the greater good, I will have some more...
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LEGO art in the garden. Photo by Kelly Allsup.

Even Gardeners Have Their First Days

Looking back, we may realize this was the year we had a surge in cultivating new gardeners and nature enthusiasts. While most of my readers already garden and are looking for new tips and interesting information, we likely have brand new gardeners who can do without technical jargon and nuanced...
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nodding onion

Designing Around Specific Colors and Plants

Planting perennials can bring you wonderful surprises and inspiration for future garden design. This year I am raving about my nodding onion (Allium cernuum). I planted them randomly throughout the pollinator garden in my front yard, not knowing a lot about them. During the spring and early summer...
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brandywine viburnum

Ornamental Fall Berries Provide Year-Round Awe

Have you ever heard a horticulturists encourage the use of plants having “multiple seasons of interest”? This might be said in response to someone’s complaints about forsythia, for example. Forsythia blooms in spring, an explosion of lemon-yellow blossoms covering the plant. But the rest of the...
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Fall planted bulbs welcome bees with early spring bloomers

Get your gardens buzzing next spring by planting bee-friendly bulbs and spring bloomers this fall. Bumblebee queens, honey bees, and solitary bees start emerging from their winter homes ready to feast on the landscape as early as March. Feed them from your garden by planting a mix of crocus, snow...
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